The Baltimore Ravens are a professional American football team based in Baltimore, Maryland. They compete in the AFC North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The Ravens have won two Super Bowl titles, Super Bowl XXXV, in the 2000 season against the New York Giants. They won again in the 2012-2013 season. The Ravens have been a leading team in the NFL in the last few years having made many playoff appearances in that time. They are known for their tough defence lead by Ray Lewis (who announced his retirement at the end of the 2012-2013 season)

The Ravens were chosen from a Baltimore Sun telephone poll in 1996, the name is borrowed from a well-known poem by Baltimore native Edgar Allen Poe. Poe lived in Baltimore before his death in 1849 and his body is buried in Baltimore. The Ravens logo consists of a mean looking Raven in the team colors of purple and gold with the letter B. The mean looking Raven fits well with the strength of the team - mean defense.

The team's first helmet logo, used from 1996 through 1998, featured raven wings outspread from a shield displaying a letter B framed by the word Ravens overhead and a heraldic cross underneath. The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a jury verdict that the logo infringed on a copyright retained by Frederick E. Bouchat, an amateur artist and security guard in Maryland.

Bouchat had submitted his design to the Maryland Stadium Authority by fax after learning that Baltimore was to acquire an NFL team. He was not credited for the design when the logo was announced. Bouchat sued the team, claiming to be the designer of the emblem; representatives of the team asserted that the image had been designed independently. The court ruled in favor of Bouchat, noting that team owner Modell had access to Bouchat's work. Bouchat's fax had gone to John Moag, the Maryland Stadium Authority chairman, whose office was located in the same building as Modell's. Bouchat ultimately was awarded no monetary compensation, though, in the damages phase of the case